I wanted to create a small photo series, presenting a single story. The goal was to have a couple, like 5-7 pictures that relate to each other and tell a story together. So when we decided on going on a date to this new place in Veszprem on a Saturday evening, I knew this is the prefect occasion to try to create the series. A night out, a simple message.
With the shoot I was going for something dark, cozy, a bit mysterious and moody. Wanted to portray the autumny, pub going vibe, as such. So, it made perfect sense to go black and white. It is easier to focus on shapes, on light and shadow. I set up my camera for the monochrome profile, this way I saw everything around me without color, immediately seeing the end result. I shoot raw so I figured, I would just apply the camera profile in Lightroom when editing the photos. On the back of the camera, they looked amazing, contrasty, moody, well exposed. I was happy.
Well, it turned out there is no camera specific black and white profile in Lightroom, while the color ones have been adopted. Of course there are some monochrome profiles, but not the same as the one in my Sony. After some digging around on forums, asking about this on Adobe’s community site, it seems that these profiles are not imported from the camera itself, but they are created by Adobe to simulate how the camera interprets RAW files. For some reason they have not created a profile for the Sony black and white. That’s a bummer. I really liked that look that I’ve seen on the back LCD. So, It was time to get creative. I took to this video, compared what I saw on the back and on my monitor and created a preset in Lr. It’s not quite the same, but it is close enough. It is a good starting point for this type of photos. If you like it and want to try it yourself, I have made it available for download below.
All in all, I’m really satisfied with the end result. Even if the photos individually are not the best, together they convey the story and the message I intended to share. They really put me in the mood, transport me back to that night. I hope they have some sort of similar effect on the viewer as well. This type of lifestyle and event story telling is definitely something I want to focus more in the future. I can see this style to take up a major part of my photography.
